Lightning Strikes Twice (Oh Sweet Canada 2.0)

 Captain Sam's:

We came up empty during our first few net checks today, but as the day went on, we slowly found a few birds in our nets. We ended up with 6 birds of 6 species, something quite exciting on a slow day. One of the few birds we caught today was another Canada Warbler! This bird was nearly identical to the one we caught yesterday, with the notable difference of being much skinnier and carrying far less fat for its migration. This hatch-year female was caught at the end of the day and made for a great treat in an underwhelming day of banding.

Spread-wing shot of the Hatch-year Female Canada Warbler from September 14th showing a molt limit. The coverts and alulas highlighted yellow have all been replaced, whereas those in blue are retained juvenile feathers. The marked difference between these two generations of feathers shows us this is a hatch-year bird as opposed to an adult, who would replace all wing coverts.

Another less than usual (but not rare like Canada Warbler) bird today was an adult Brown Thrasher. These birds are really beautiful to see in the hand and a special treat during our day.

Hoping for better days in the future here, but enjoying every second of time out there.

-Ben

Little Bear:

We've reached mid-September, but it felt like a mid-Summer day at Little Bear. Even though we had a cold front last week that brought some relief, winds from the southeast for the past few days have sent the heat and humidity right back up into the 90s. We had a surprisingly productive first net check with 8 birds captured, then managed another 4 before closing early due to the high temperature. Unfortunately for us, tomorrow looks pretty much the same but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can emulate Captain Sams by catching an interesting migrant like Canada Warbler for ourselves!

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	3	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Canada Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	3
Painted Bunting	1	-	1	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	5	7	12
# of Recaptures	1	5	6
# of Species	6	5	8
Effort (net-hours)	108	69	177
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	5.6	17.4	10.2
# of Nets	30	23	-

2021 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	760	464	1224
# of Recaptures	148	69	217
# of Species	42	38	48
Effort (net-hours)	4052.5	2445.5	6498
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	22.4	21.8	22.1
# of Days	30	25	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Ben Stalheim (CS)

Nate Watkins (CS)

Josh Lefever (LB)